Board approves 2013-14 budget

HILLSDALE — The Hillsdale Community School Board of Education approved the 2013-14 budget Thursday night in front of a room full of empty chairs at the high school library.

During a half-hour public hearing which saw no attendance by the public, the board approved a $12.5 million general fund budget. The board also approved the sinking fund at $626,500 and food service budget at $827,277.

The $12.5 million budget is $381,000 less than the revenue that will be brought in by the school system.

“I think you have done a good job of getting our budget as lean as it can be without impacting students,” she said.

Vondra said he took staffing issues into account when the budget was made.

“There are always changes that are made over the summer,” he said.

The budget also has $100,000 built into it for the purchase of new used buses for the school corporation. The funds were built into the 2012-13 budget, but the money was not spent.

Vondra said the corporation was unable to find any good used buses available before the end of the fiscal year Sunday.

“We know this is something we are going to have to address,” he said.

There is also $50,000 built into the budget for upgrading the mathematics curriculum.

During the meeting the board also adjusted the ending budgets for 2012-13. A revision to the building and site sinking fund was made because of the purchase of windows for the Davis Middle School project.

Vondra said the corporation went ahead and purchased the windows a year before the project to save money.

“We saved $32,000 purchasing the windows this year,” he said.

The windows were purchased with the windows for the Gier Elementary School project, which is taking place this summer.

Vondra said work will begin on Gier after the Fourth of July holiday with work to be completed by the middle of August.

Vondra was also excited to share test results received from the Michigan Department of Education. Hillsdale High School had the highest Michigan Merit Exam and ACT scores in the county with a 20.5.

“We are proud of that,” Vondra said.

In other business, Patty Knapp was approved as business manager for the corporation during the June 17 meeting.